Black Shark 2 review: For those who are in the need for speed

Crafted to unique designs and armed with the latest processors, gaming smartphones are a testimony to the rise in popularity of mobile gaming in the world. And amongst some select models in India, Black Shark 2 is one of the latest entrants in the gaming smartphone category. At a starting price of Rs 45,999, the phone has been launched in India in two RAM and internal storage variants that come in different colours too: 6GB+128GB (Shadow Black) and 12GB+256GB (Frozen Silver). The Frozen Silver variant comes at an MRP of Rs 59,999. We reviewed the 6GB+128GB Shadow Black variant of the gaming device and here is our in-depth review.

| Gadgets Now | Updated: Jul 5, 2019, 06:56PM IST

Critic Rating3.5/5

Top Features

In ‘Slabtown’, the fourth episode in season five of AMC’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic TV series ‘The Walking Dead’, there is a scene in which two survivors, in the fictional world overrun by zombie-like humans termed as “walkers” or “rotters” ("roamers" for some), are talking inside a hospital. Enter Beth Greene, the newly admitted girl and Dr Steven Edwards, who’s been there for a while at the hospital. In that scene, he says to Beth (in reference to a Caravaggio painting in his room), “Art is not about survival. It is about transcendence. Rising above.”

‘Intensely proliferated’ is one adjective that can be easily used to describe the world of smartphones these days. With smartphone brands numbering in dozens in India alone, the market is pullulating with a lot many handsets – scratch that actually --
a lot many similar-looking handsets with similar specifications. So, if you are looking for something different when it comes to buying a new smartphone, something that’s not just built to survive a trite competition, something that aims to transcend, you would go for a product that offers you more than just the usual handset experience. Perhaps a gaming smartphone is one that fits this category. Crafted to unique designs and armed with the latest processors, these devices are a testimony to the rise in popularity of mobile gaming in the world. And amongst some select models in India, Black Shark 2 is one of the latest entrants in the gaming smartphone category. At a starting price of Rs 45,999, the phone has been launched in India in two RAM and internal storage variants that come in different colours too: 6GB+128GB (Shadow Black) and 12GB+256GB (Frozen Silver). The Frozen Silver variant comes at an MRP of Rs 59,999. The 6GB+128GB Shadow Black variant retails at Rs 39,999 while the 12GB+256GB Frozen Silver variant retails at Rs 49,999.

Without prevaricating much, here are some solid design facts first. The dimensions of Black Shark 2 are 163.61 mm x 75.01 mm x 8.77 mm (height x width x depth). The phone body, as per the company, is made of “aviation-grade” frosted metal and glass. The design of Black Shark 2, the company further says, is “inspired by the bold lines and subtle curves of a luxury sports car”. Luxury sports car or not, this is an eye-catching smartphone.

The display of the phone comes pre-installed with a thin protective film with two small curved sections cut out from it, one of which curves around the 20MP front camera. The phone has got about 6mm thick bezels, both on the top and bottom sides of the display. On the other hand, there are very thin bezels (about 1mm thick) on the left and right sides of the display.

The front side of the phone features a 6.39-inch AMOLED full-screen display. At the top of the display lies a narrow earpiece-- about 3cm long (that functions as one of the speakers also) where the top of the display joins the edge of the body-- and the front camera on the top bezel. At the bottom bezel lies the other speaker of the phone, which is of the same width as the top one but longer (about 3.5cm long).

The top edge of the phone is devoid of any buttons but there is small vent for microphone on the upper back side of the phone.

The bottom edge of the phone carries a dual nano SIM card slot and a USB Type-C port. The SIM card slot is not a hybrid one and does not have a dedicated space for microSD card. So, there is no way you could expand the storage which is beyond 128GB in this case. The company ships a USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack converter in the box.

The right edge of the phone carries the Shark key for toggling in and out of Shark Space (more on it later), and the power button below it. The Shark key has been given a distinctive look by the company, with fluorescent green on the edges and a rough grey texture on the top, and slides sideways.

The left edge carries the volume buttons. The Shark key and power button on the left and the two volume buttons on the right have been positioned at the same length along the edges and it is quite easy to reach them with the fingers when handling the phone one-handed. All three buttons and the Shark key come tightly embedded in the phone body and do not tilt or shift sideways upon being pressed.

The rear design of Black Shark 2 is what distinctively sets it apart from other phones and hints at it being a gaming smartphone. The rear part of the phone’s metal and glass body is a combination of matte and glossy finish, with the matte design dominating. The glossy part makes for the signature X-shaped design of the Black Shark 2 that has got the ‘S’ logo in its centre.

The logo fades in and fades out slowly in fluorescent green (default colour) whenever you are doing anything with the phone, provided you have not disabled the ‘Light Effect’ setting. It stops glowing when the phone is not being used. You can customise the light settings of the ‘S’ logo by choosing one out of these three lighting effect modes at a time: Always On, Breathing and Rainbow. Always On will keep the logo constantly glowing in fluorescent green, Breathing will keep it blinking either in fluorescent green or in a combination of different vibrant colour hues, one at a time, and Rainbow will keep changing the colours while keeping the logo constantly illuminated. The various colours at your disposal are light blue, purple, turquoise, orange, magenta, red, among others. You can even vary the speed at which the colours change or blink from three speed settings.

There is a dual rear camera setup that is present on the glossy part of the smartphone’s back. It comprises of a 48MP primary camera and a 12MP secondary camera, both jutting out of the body by about 1mm in a perfectly circular design. Just below the camera setup, lies the LED flash.

Black Shark 2 has got a very durable build, with curved edges and has got a different, unique look, with a thin fluorescent green strip lined across the whole body, just where the screen joins the edge of the body. Below the strip, on the edges, are two narrow strips of about the same width embedded within the edges, aligned in parallel with the buttons, and they glow in fluorescent green and red depending upon the battery level the phone is in. When the battery reserves are depleted, the edge strips or edge bars glow in red; when there is sufficient battery, the fluorescent green will be back.

It is slightly heavy to hold with one hand and weighs about 205 grams (a little heavier than Samsung Galaxy S9+), but you will get used to the weight as you gradually start using it on a daily basis. The phone doesn’t slip from the grip most of the times and the matte finish on its side has got a lot to do it. The matte build doesn’t register fingerprint, the glossy part does but since it covers a small surface at the back of the body compared to the matte part, fewer prints are registered.

The phone has been incorporated with what the company calls as "Smart Antenna". It comprises of an X-type Antenna, plus 2 side antennas for strong connection irrespective of the phone orientation.

The smartphone features a 6.39-inch (16.23 cm) AMOLED full-screen TrueView FHD+ display with 2340x1080 pixels resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen comes with 430nit (typ) high brightness. It has a DCI–P3 108.9% colour gamut (typ).

The technologies used in the display, as per the company, include TrueClarity MEMC processing for eliminating judder and blur. It also comes with HDR Tone mapping and real time SDR-HDR conversion.

The icons look closely but neatly packed in the space they occupy and they are spread across the screen to give it a resemblance of stock Android phone screens.

We found the screen brightness of the phone, when used indoors during the day or under artificial light, to be optimum. But you will need to ratchet it up to near maximum when you are using the phone outdoors, in bright sunlight or overcast conditions both. A setting called ‘Sunshine visual enhancement’ is present, but that doesn’t help a lot with augmenting the screen brightness only . Also, the phone does not have an auto brightness feature but rather it has Adaptive Brightness, that senses the brightness patterns when the user increases or decreases it manually. A Night Light feature is also present to reduce blue light emissions and can be scheduled.

With different viewing angles, there is no discernible change in screen colours and the display looks just about fine.

Black Shark 2: Gaming performance

Let's begin the gaming performance of Black Shark 2 with the aforementioned physical addition called the Shark key. This special toggle key given above the power key is meant for activating Shark Mode. When you toggle it (shift it upwards), Shark Mode gets activated, which means all the running applications close down, RAM is freed and also, all the incoming calls and messages will be rejected. Upon entering Shark Mode, a window called Shark Space will open showing the games that you have installed on your device.

To deactivate Shark Mode, you just need to toggle the key back into its original position.

Black Shark 2 handled high-end games at high frame rates and other maximum possible settings very well. We tested the device with GPU-intensive games like PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Mortal Kombat, and had a pleasing gaming experience without any frame rate fluctuations or stutters. The device comes with Direct Touch Liquid Cooling 3.0 technology based on Mille-Feuille Full Area Liquid Cooling System, which, as per the company, equips the device with an oversized cooling plate that reduces core temperatures by up to 14°C. But some practical things first.

The phone rear starts warming up after about 40-45 minutes of gameplay but it doesn’t heat up so much as to cause discomfort and the temperature also doesn’t increase to the point of the device getting very hot, especially after long hours of gameplay. Gaming with the side-out cover (the cooling case) installed is recommended.

The side-out protective case is a useful accessory in that it grants you a little more space to move your fingers during gaming, gives an effective, comfortable grip and also doesn’t let the heating up of device affect your gameplay much. The case has got about 6mm thick part that covers the top and bottom edges and increases your chances of easily reaching out to the in-screen buttons that lie near the edges of the screen. Here is how the phone looks with the cooling case installed:

Since this is a gaming smartphone, there are a host of gaming-centric features and we will tell you here about a few in some detail. To begin with, there’s Gamer Studio which can be opened by sliding your finger from the top corner of the screen.

Black Shark 2’s Gamer Studio is one feature that will let you control your gaming environment in multiple ways. For starters, you can mute the notifications for calls and messages. You can also access the Game Dock setting from within the game and make changes like switching on frame rate and voice optimisation, locking brightness, switching on Adaptive Bluetooth Stereo etc. The Game Dock setting is also present in phone settings and can be explored from that menu also.

The one gaming feature that stands out is MasterTouch which is based on pressure sensing. It lets you replicate the function of any in-display button in a game. For example, while shooting in games like PUBG Mobile, the player has to depend solely on the on-screen designated buttons. You may adjust their position on the screen but you don’t have any other way to shoot. So, moving and shooting at the same time is a tad difficult, even for pro players because to shoot, you would need to reach out for the button to shoot. The MasterTouch setting eases that part by assigning adjustable rectangular areas on the left and the right side of the screen so that by pressing anywhere in that part, you would be able to shoot. There would be no need to tap specifically on the button meant for shooting. Pressure sensing is meant for any gaming function like crouching, using scopes etc. You just need to press the area you had selected to use that function.

To use MasterTouch, first designate two buttons, one on the left and the other on the right side of the screen, with the small circles with ‘L’ and ‘R’ inside them. For example, if you drag and drop the ‘L’ button on the shooting button in PUBG Mobile and select an area just near the button, pressing hard on any point in that area would cause your gun to fire, not just tapping the button.

The pressure levels of both the thumbs can be adjusted too as per your requirements. A low pressure setting will make the gun fire with only a slight pressure of the thumb, while with a high pressure setting, you would need to press harder to shoot.

To ramp up gaming performance further, there is a Ludicrous Mode in Gamer Studio for maximum gaming performance. In Ludicrous mode, there are three settings that you can control: CPU, GPU and Thermal Control. Increasing Thermal Control to maximum may cause overheating of device, so playing with the cooling case on is recommended.

The audio output of the phone is not that loud for gaming sessions. Though the handset comes with dual front-facing speakers, we didn’t find it loud enough in certain gameplay aspects for gaming sessions, even at full volume. For example: Footsteps in PUBG Mobile were not easy to hear when we relied only on the speakers. Also, in-game spoken chats were a little less audible with the speakers. So, while the dual speakers are suited for watching videos, they cannot be exactly recommended for certain games that need some extra hearing requirements. Better to use an earphone or a headphone when gaming with Black Shark 2.

You can play games on your TV or monitor in HD with the Black Shark Type-C To HDMI Cable. Black Shark Gamepad 2.0 can be attached to the device.

Black Shark 2: General performance

All the security options like face unlock, fingerprint sensor quite smoothly. The face unlock feature takes about a second to unlock the phone in light-suffused conditions. In very dimly lit environments, it may take longer to detect the face. The phone doesn’t come with a brightness compensation feature to aid face unlock.

Powered by octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Soc (4 cores running at 1.79GHz, 3 cores running at 2.42GHz and 1 core at 2.84GHz) and Adreno 640 GPU, the phone runs on company’s Joy UI based on Android 9 Pie. The layout resembles that of a stock Android phone. With 6GB of RAM, the phone runs speedily even when put under multitasking pressures. We had no issues while navigating amongst the apps too; it is fast and stays that way.

On GeekBench4 benchmark test, Black Shark 2 got a single-core score of 3558 and a multi-core score of 10784.
On AnTuTu benchmark, the phone got a score of 361540.

Black Shark 2: Camera

Black Shark 2 comes armed with a dual rear camera setup of which the main camera is of 48MP with f/1.75 aperture and a pixel size of 0.8µm. According to the company, it is equivalent to 12MP, 1.6µm in 4-in-1 mode. It has got PDAF autofocus. The secondary rear camera is a 12MP one with f/2.2 aperture and 1.0µm pixel size. Both the primary and the secondary rear cameras incorporate 6 lens each.

The phone has been given a 20MP 5-lens camera of f/2.0 aperture and 0.9µm pixel size.

So we have a total of three cameras with 48MP+12MP dual rear ones and a 20MP selfie camera. Let’s give you a lowdown on how well the camera performed in different conditions.

Starting with the rear camera performance, the outdoor shots in sun-shade (HDR, AI settings on) gave rich, crisp and clear photos. There is mostly a clear reproduction of natural colours, though AI does make the photos, especially the ones that capture greenery, appear fresher and more vivid. The objects that are a little far away (about 3-4 metres) from the objects/faces in focus also came out to be clear with only a slight decrease in sharpness that does not affect the overall shot in any way.

Rear camera shots in bright sunlight (HDR on, AI off) are also sharp and detailed. In one of the snaps, a slogan painted on a moving truck on the other lane, about 20-25 metres away, was clearly visible. Other moving vehicles were also captured immaculately with the clarity you would expect with the photo taken of vehicles parked somewhere. The distant objects (about 20-25 metres away), that lie within the camera frame come out to be a little stripped of colours and blurry. With both HDR and AI on, there is not much difference in the camera shots except insertion of light in some images.

Against the sunlight, the rear cameras take time to adjust and even after the focus gets readjusted, the clarity in the images goes missing. Though nearby objects and people are snapped clearly without grain, the objects in the background come out blurry and hazy and sometimes even grain seeps in.

Rear camera shots at night when outdoors (with some street lights as the light source), the photos came out to be mostly clear, with nearby objects captured in detail but the ones in the background lacked sharpness. With both AI setting off and on, the surrounding greenery appears slightly more vibrant and vivid.

Normal selfie shots in bright sunlight (without HDR) came out sharp and clear with great detailing like being able to capture and distinguish individual hair strands on a person’s head without any smudginess or blurriness. The skin tone also comes out to be natural in the photo. The same image setting, when captured with HDR on, gives out almost the same image, except that the background this time gets a brightness boost. Otherwise the selfies taken with HDR on or off give almost the same image.

Normal selfie shots in areas of sun shade or during dusk (without HDR) repeated their good performance of bright sunlight. But when taken with HDR on, the skin tone of the face gets lightened up a tad. Plus, with greenery in the background, HDR turns the dark green tint of tree leaves and shrubs a shade lighter.

Normal selfie shots when taken indoors under artificial light (without HDR setting) came out beautifully with bright, clear photos. The camera does whiten the skin tone of the face and brightens the overall image but only a bit.

You would have a better experience taking selfies under artificial light with the HDR mode on. The HDR mode lightens the skin tone and smoothens the skin very slightly. Also, the glare from the background lights is reduced and the hazy glow enveloping the light sources in the background gets diminished, thus enhancing the clarity of the overall shot.

Selfie shots (portrait mode) when taken outdoors under bright sunlight and areas of sun-shade gave sharp and clear shots with almost no grain. The edge detection of faces is accurate and the depth effect makes the background very hazy, bringing out the face captured in the photo. While the selfie shots in portrait mode look appealing, the background gets blown out with extra brightness with shots in bright sunlight.

Selfie shots (portrait mode) when taken indoors under artificial light also gave very clear shots with accurate edge detection. The bokeh mode makes the background really hazy. The skin tone is captured as it looks under artificial white light and there is no extra brightening of the face in focus.

Normal selfie shots in low-light conditions of night lack sharpness and clarity. Though there is no grain the images captured, the images look better with the flash on. Front camera performance in the night (portrait mode), is similar, with the exception of blurred out background. The edge detection in extremely low-light situations is not accurate.

The phone can record videos in 4K, FHD 1080p and 720p, all at 30 fps. Videos during the day were fairly easy to shoot. While moving, there was very little readjustment by the lens and that too didn’t take more than a second or two. But while shooting videos in the night, in dimly-lit areas, the lens underwent refocussing and adjustment many times while we shot clips on the go.

If you keep on taking photos with the phone, like about 20-25 photos at a stretch, the phone starts to warm up.

Black Shark 2: Battery

The phone has been given a 4000mAh battery and 27W/4.8A Quick Charging support.

Black Shark 2 charged to 30 percent within 30 minutes when put to charging with the company’s own USB Type-C charger. After 40 minutes, it had charged to 50 percent. That’s some serious fast charging and it can compete with that of OnePlus 6T McLaren which , in our tests--with its Warp Charge 30 technology-- had charged to 37 percent in 30 minutes. However, the company claims that the phone will charge to 60 percent in 30 minutes which the phone couldn’t accomplish in our tests.

After 60 minutes, that is, one hour, the smartphone battery level stood at 85 percent. The next 15 percent were covered in the next forty-three minutes. So, for a complete charge from zero to full, the phone took exactly one hour and forty-three minutes.

While charging, the ultra-narrow strips of light that lie embedded in the phone body and are aligned in parallel with the buttons on both the edges, start blinking in fluorescent green. The blinking pattern is like this: they glow for about one to two seconds, fade away slowly and this repeats. The edge strips act as battery-level indicators. When the battery levels of the phone are down, the edge strips glow in a fading red hue and you will be able to see clearly that the red colour is only present near the end of the strip. As the phone charges, the bars of the edge strips slowly keep on filling with fluorescent green, indicating how much the phone has charged. You don’t need to pick up your phone to check how much it has charged. This feature accentuates the aesthetic aspect of the design and gives the phone the look of an unconventional gaming device. The gleaming edge strips are also helpful when you are gaming in the dark and need to keep a tab on the battery level of the phone without switching on the lights in your room. The edge bars fill completely with green as soon as the phone’s battery charges to 80 percent. It is not fully charged yet, but the edge bars will indicate otherwise and they will keep blinking slowly. After the phone has charged completely, the edge strip will stop blinking, its bar will be full and will gleam once when you pick up the phone and press the power button. But this action is not perfectly consistent, with the bar sometimes glowing after two presses and sometimes with just one.

But if you sometimes wouldn’t want the lights on the edge bars and on the central ‘S’ logo on the back or do not want these effects, you can turn them off easily using the Light Effect setting that can be found in the drop-down notifications panel.

The smartphone rear starts heating up slowly while the phone is charging and it becomes noticeable after 30 minutes or so. While the smartphone rear becomes a little warm during charging, it does not heat up further.

After charging the device to full, we put the battery to test by playing 1080p content on the device on low volume, while Google Maps navigation was also running. After three hours, the device battery had dropped to 86 percent with very little heating up of the smartphone back. After a little more than an hour, the battery was at 79 percent.

The battery drop while playing HD videos for 3-4 hours at a stretch is not sudden.

Overnight, when the phone is not being used ( with the mobile data connection switched off), the battery drops by 9-10 percent.

On medium usage of smartphone that involves gaming for about 2 hours, watching high-quality content for 2-3 hours, listening to music for an hour, checking social media feeds, attending calls for 30 minutes to an hour, the smartphone battery will last you through the day. For light users who don’t use the phone much apart from checking Twitter, WhatsApp some times a day and watch short video contents, the phone battery will easily run for a day and a half and even two days.

Black Shark 2: Verdict

This is a powerful gaming device that gives you bang for the buck as far as speed and gaming performance are considered. Extensive gaming sessions will cause warming up of the device but it can be tackled by installing the side-out case. The camera performance during the day is quite impressive. The battery also runs long and will easily last a day and a half for any average smartphone user.

For a device of this price tag, why the company didn’t provide the phone with a feature as common as Auto Brightness in this price segment was beyond us. The dual speakers are not that loud enough for certain important gaming requirements like voice chats, hearing footsteps in PUBG Mobile etc.

The option to not expand memory is also a bit irksome as there is no microSD card slot. The camera performance during the night is not up to the mark, especially in low-light situations. Go for this beastly-specced smartphone with a long battery life that is built for speed and captures lovely photos in daylight if you are truly passionate about mobile gaming, don't care much about low-light camera shots and wouldn't think much about shelling out about Rs 50k for it.